Tireless Girls

where it began | one

you are not alone.

*

"Five more minutes Mom!" Begged the seven-year-old version of Klarissa.

"Alright. Five more and then we go home." Her mother said in a stern voice, giving her daughter a playful look of warning before seeing Klarissa run over to the swing set and get on one of them.

Kicking her feet off the ground, she felt like she was flying—well, that's certainly what a toddler like her would feel—and held on to the chains of the swing for dear life.

She got off the rusty red swings and tripped over a loose sharp rock and fell onto her knees, her arms catching her torso before it fell.

She almost lets out a cry when a boy around her age made a shadow over her sitting figure.

He smiles at her. "Need a bandaid?"

She nodded gratefully, letting the boy wipe her wound with a wet wipe and place the adhesive bandage on her kneecap.

"I'm Klarissa." The little girl said as the unnamed boy helped her stand up.

"Ben's the name. It's short for Benedict but that name is too long."

Klarissa started walking to her mother who called her right after she stood up and turned to Ben who was walking beside her.

"Are you going to your mom too?" She asks, seeing her own Mother with another woman.

"Yeah. Are you?"

She nods and continues walking with her newfound friend.

Her Mother sees her approaching with Ben and beams at them. "I see you two have met."

Klarissa's mother turns to the woman beside her and introduces her daughter. "Amanda, this is Klarissa."

She smiles at the lady she now knew as Auntie Mandy and heard Ben being introduced to her own mother.

"Now, Ben. This is Auntie Karen." Auntie Amanda says softly, ruffling Ben's hair.

"Hi!" He says, showing off his baby teeth that had some missing from their places.

Karen chuckles. "Klar, they apparently are our next-door-neighbors!"

Klarissa jumped up and down. "Really?!"

"Yes, really." Karen says, looking at her daughter's frame.

She notices the bandage on her shin and asks about it. "What happened to your leg?"

"Ben cleaned it and put a bandaid on it." She said in her high-pitched voice.

"You're okay? Nothing's broken?" Her Mom jokes, after checking her toddler's wound and confirming that it had been cared for properly.

"Nope!"

"I think it's time to go home, don't you Mandy?"

Auntie Mandy calls for Ben who had run off to the swings while the three girls were talking.

The boy runs over, nearly tripping on a rock himself and finally reaches the group.

"Let's go home."

He nods and takes his place next to Klarissa who was walking in front of the two parents of the new best friends.

*

Well that was cute, wasn't it?

I hope you liked this chapter!

I know it's a little bit longer than my usual first chapters but I thought that this was pretty good.

Please stay tuned for the next update!

venice. xx